Sexual Integrity

   Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8

 

This is an excerpt from chapter 4 of the late Dr. Edwin Cole’s book, ‘Sexual Integrity.’

 

   You may have made a decision not to engage in fornication or adultery, yet you are still fighting an ongoing battle with lust. Everywhere you turn, you see sex and you are continually tempted to entertain impure thoughts. You may be thinking that those thoughts are rising up from within you, but in reality, the influence may be coming from the spirit of others.

   Let’s say, for example, that you feel pure in your spirit when you pray in the morning, but you feel spiritually disturbed or depleted after arriving at school or work. You may need to take a serious look at your environment because something in it could be affecting your spiritual state. The problem may be as simple as a billboard you pass each day or your choice of radio station. Even though the billboard or deejay may not be blatant enough to attract your conscious attention, subliminally they may be suggestive or provocative enough to affect your spirit without you even realizing it.

   Because seducing spirits are so real, ask God to help you become aware of the spiritual influences which surround you in your daily life and routine.

 

Pornography Enslaves and Dominates

 

   Although we may not even be aware of some of the spiritual influences that are affecting us, there are other spiritual influences of which we are quite aware. Pornography is one of them.

   Pornography, whether in magazine, on TV, or on a computer screen, is specially designed to help you entertain lustful thoughts. The more you entertain those thoughts, the less control you have over them. Before you know it, they have created a place for themselves in your mind,

   Not only does pornography encourage people to create an image in their mind, but it also entices them to fantasize about it. Usually these fantasies involve an erotic act that can only be satisfied with someone else or by masturbation.

   What many young men and women who participate in pornography are looking for is intimacy. But pornography does not produce intimacy. Instead of closeness, it produces distance. Pornographers often end up impotent, unable to have sex. Pornography, like sin, promises to please and serve, but it only enslaves and dominates.

   When people tell me about someone whose behavior is inconsistent and radically altered, one of the first questions I ask is: “Is it a woman or pornography?” In most cases, the change in behavior is related to one or the other. Because pornography pollutes, contaminates, and infects both the mind and the spirit, the result is confusion. It brings inconsistency of life, a mental fog, spiritual weakness, and separation from friendship with God.

 

 

Pornography: A Counterfeit for Prayer

 

   What many people don’t realize is that pornography is actually a counterfeit for prayer. Pornography promises to produce what prayer alone can produce – intimacy.

   We become intimate with the One to Whom we pray and the ones for whom we pray. The greatest intimacy a man and a woman will ever know in their relationship will come out of the times of prayer together. Nothing else will produce the intimacy and interpersonal relationships that prayer will.

   In creation, God created the earth in the positive. Man, through sin, recreated it in the negative. God creates but Satan counterfeits. When it comes to love, there is freedom, but lust gives a heavy burden. Love is satisfying, but lust is insatiable.

 

Becoming a “Hearer” and a “Doer” of God’s Word

 

   God’s power is released in your life to the degree that you are obedient to Him, and no more. If you disobey Him by constantly following your lusts, you won’t His power.

   All of God’s promises are conditional. His love is not conditional, but His promises are. To receive His promises, we have to meet His conditions.

   “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17). When you do your part, God will do His part. God gives you his Holy Spirit to keep you pure in thought, word, and deed. Instead of allowing lustful thoughts to continue to dominate your mind, renew your mind daily by reading God’s Word, then applying it to your life.